Project

ECODRIVE: Ecosystem Change in the North Sea: Processes, Drivers and Future scenarios

Description:

ECODRIVE brings together climatologists, modellers, planktologists, fisheries experts and ecophysiologists with the aim to assess and model historical and projected future changes in the trophodynamic structure and function of the North Sea ecosystem. ECODRIVE advances our predictive understanding of the impacts of various drivers of ecosystem change including those acting via climate change and variability as well as those acting more regionally via anthropogenic forcing such as fisheries exploitation and eutrophication.The approach includes available long-term time series data on all trophic levels (from phytoplankton to fish), climate indices, as well as modelled (climate-forced) estimates of abiotic and biotic factors. The results from the combination of (i) retrospective investigations using long-term time series of biotic and abiotic variables stretching back for 40-100 years, (ii) field studies to obtain indispensable information on trophic links of new key species and (iii) a suite of climate, hydrodynamic and ecosystem models will allow to develop future scenarios.

ECODRIVE is designed to (i) provide a better understanding of potential climate change impacts (scenarios), (ii) construct usable climate change indicators, and (iii) improve the interface between science and policy formulation in terms of risk management as suggested by the European Science Foundation.